A Japanese video journalist shot dead during protests in Burma was buried today in Tokyo, with hundreds of Burmese exiles joining friends and family at the ceremony.

Kenji Nagai, 50, who worked for the small Japanese news agency APF, was killed on September 27 when Burmese troops opened fire on protesters in the capital, Rangoon.

Burmese officials said he was killed accidentally. However, Japan claimed that footage of the shooting smuggled out of Burma indicated that a Burmese soldier shot Nagai deliberately at close range.

Toru Yamaji, the head of the APF agency, led tributes at the ceremony at a funeral hall in Tokyo. "Honestly speaking, I still can't believe Kenji Nagai is dead," he said. "I still can't accept the reality."

Mathidawin Kyan, one of the hundreds of Japan-based Burmese exiles attending the funeral, said: "As a Burmese, I would like to express our heartfelt apologies, sorrow and embarrassment to the family of Nagai and people of Japan."

Nagai is thought to have died from blood loss caused by at least one bullet penetrating his kidney. The findings of a full postmortem examination have yet to be published.

Japan has requested the return of the small video camera that Nagai was holding when he was shot near the Sule pagoda in the capital. The camera was not among personal possessions handed back by Burmese officials.

Last week, the foreign minister, Masahiko Komura, said Japan, which is one of Burma's biggest providers of aid, was preparing to suspend help in response to Nagai's death.

Japan has withheld full-scale aid to Burma since the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was detained in 2003, but it has funded emergency health projects and provided other assistance.